Veronika Wild

  More than 100,000 tourists will head to Antarctica this summer. Should we worry about damage to the ice and its ecosystems? Elizabeth Leane , University of Tasmania ; Anne Hardy , University of Tasmania ; Can Seng Ooi , University of Tasmania ; Carolyn Philpott , University of Tasmania ; Hanne E.F. Nielsen , University of Tasmania , and Katie Marx , University of Tasmania As the summer sun finally arrives for people in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 100,000 tourists will head for the ice. Travelling on one of more than 50 cruise ships, they will brave the two-day trip across the notoriously rough Drake Passage below Patagonia, destined for the polar continent of Antarctica. During the COVID summer of 2020-21, just 15 tourists on two yachts visited Antarctica. But now, tourism is back – and bigger than ever. This season’s visitor numbers are up more than 40% over the largest pre-pandemic year . So are all those tourists going to damage what is often ...

The E- ferry Ellen has been operating between islands in Southern Denmark since 2019. Although  it cost 40% more to build than conventional ferries it saves 75% per year in operating costs. It also saves 2,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere and is clean and quiet.       -Image by Erik Christensen , CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons   Problems and solutions Shipping is responsible for almost 3% of global emissions which means around 940 million tons of carbon dioxide. However, the heavy bunker fuel used means that a single container ship also releases 5,000 tons of sulphur oxides (SOx) per year and sooty particulates which contribute to air pollution and are especially detrimental to human health. In 2008 shipping volumes totalled 900 million tonnes. By 2018 they had reached 3 billion tonnes which were carried by 60,000 ships, and that volume is set double on 2015 volumes by 2050. Eighty percent of the world’s goods currently go by ship ...

“If you go down to the docks today, you’re sure of a big surprise. …. (To the tune of the Teddy Bears’ Picnic song), though you won’t find teddy bears.  I was in town yesterday. It was a glorious summer’s day with people relaxing in the park. Then I noticed knots of people heading down towards the docks.   I followed them down and lo and behold there was an enormous ship in the harbour. At first I thought it was a new block of flats. Despite Hobart’s apparent timelessness, it does sometimes happen that things change while I have been away. When I came back from Korea in 2007, MONA had been built on the old Moorilla estate in the middle of the river and I thought that there must have been an enormous industrial accident in in my absence - not that it isn't an amazing place. Now, looking more closely I noticed that what I thought were balconies were in fact lifeboats, and there were a couple of funnels poking out at the top. A glimpse of the Queen ...